Social dancing requires excellent music choices appropriate for the occasion. My expertise in dancing Lindy Hop and Balboa has helped me cater to the needs of these dancers. With over 12 years of deejay experience and countless logged hours of deejaying, I’ve learned to read a crowd and easily deliver the music that makes them want to dance.
Birkley is passionate about vernacular jazz music, especially with fitting the best music for each jazz dance, whether Lindy Hop, Balboa, Slow Drags, or Charleston. He works hard to keep the floor swinging out, and loves bringing fresh tunes for dancers to enjoy. He has been a staff DJ at Herrang Dance Camp the past four years, along with a number of events locally and nationally (CSC, Lindybout). Birkley has been deejaying Lindy Hop for more than 10 years, hailing from Edmonton, Canada. He is the owner of Sugar Swing, the main Lindy Hop studio in his city; also, as deejay coordinator, Birkley is in charge of scheduling local swing deejays for three dance socials per week at his studio. He handles all swing band bookings (1-2 times a month), trains new deejays, and has created in-depth deejay guidelines for his trainees. His purpose and passion is to bring the best and most inspiring music to every floor he deejays.
While Birkley favours music from the 1930’s and 1940’s, he has love affairs with all eras of dance music, including funk, soul, 1950’s, New Orleans rhythms, and even pop! Having strong opinions about swing music and the art of Lindy Hop and vernacular jazz dancing doesn’t keep him from enjoying other dance music and dance styles.
More broadly, Birkley is often in the role of music coordinator. At his own studio, he schedules deejays locally for three dances a week and has developed detailed guidelines, policies, and training material for his deejays. He also hires bands 1-2 times a month for these events and has created guidelines to help bands play effectively for Lindy hoppers. Each year Birkley has the honour of assembling an all-star band for Edmonton’s annual Summer Solstice festival by hand-picking five or more world-class swing musicians.
Highlighted Event Experience
- Herrang Dance Camp (Sweden) – staff deejay at this world-renowned camp for the last four years
- Lindybout (Vancouver)
- Canadian Swing Championships (Montreal)
- Mini Balboa Fest (Vancouver)
- Prairie Lindy Exchange, i.e. PLEX (most years)
Deejay Proficiencies
- Lindy Hop socials
- Balboa dances
- Slow Drag nights
- Competition deejaying
- DJ training
- DJ coordination
Other Deejay Specialties
As a versatile deejay who is often tasked with theme nights and specialized dance forms, he can certainly bust out an evening’s worth of the following music styles:
- Trad Jazz, Charleston, & New Orleans music
- Funk parties
- Soul dances
- 50’s Rock & Roll
- 1980’s and 1990’s pop music
- Top 40’s
- Electroswing
Mentorship
Through his studio Sugar Swing, Birkley has mentored some of the finest deejays in Western Canada, who’ve gone on to win several Lindybout (Vancouver) deejay contests! He continues to train deejays from the ground-up to spin for Lindy Hoppers and also specialty sets such as Balboa or Slow Drags. Furthermore, Birkley has created valuable documentation (guidelines, policies, and tips & tricks) relating to swing deejays that have been used in other scenes such as Montreal and Calgary.
Music Director
Birkley is responsible for all music that gets played at his studio. Through Sugar Swing, Birkley oversees three social dances every week, hires live music 1-2 times per month, and hosts special weekend events (workshops and exchanges) 3-4 times per year. These dances can call for a variety of requirements that typically include tons of great swing music. Themed nights also may call for specialty sets like Funk and Soul, 50’s Rock n Roll, and Top 40’s.
While working closely with trombonist and band leader Brad Shigeta, along with his experience of hiring bands dozens of times, Birkley has developed musician’s guidelines for bands to play at his venue. These guidelines have successfully helped to unify the needs and wants of dancers with the musicians, creating consistently better-than-average to excellent experiences for both dancers and musicians alike!